UCLG·CGLU · www.uclg.org
Franco regime and affirm the greater outreach of Barcelona compared to the Spanish capital, Madrid. But, it was also a rivalry in Catalonia itself that explained the search for support and visibility at international level. Namely, the struggle between the city of Barcelona and the Generalitat of Catalonia, which led Mayor Pasqual Maragall and his team to commit to the organization of major events (the 1992 Olympic Games) and to take the lead in inter-municipal activities in order to connect domestic partners under the aegis of the City of Barcelona (university networks, local management representatives, the Chamber of commerce, etc). More recently, participation in the inter-municipal networks has been the opportunity for municipalities to defend their calls for decentralisation and the autonomy of local governments, in particular through the connections of international municipal associations with the European Union or the United Nations’ Agencies. Participating in an international association of local authorities is a way to object to national institutions and legislations that are unfavourable for local and regional authorities.
• When one follows the international activities of specific cities during the past 100 years, there are periods in which the involvement in international groups is more intense. Reforming municipal teams or new Mayors, more often than not, play the international card to build their programme and/or justify changes that they wish to introduce in their town/ city. Conversely, participation in international groups also allows for foreign expertise to be mobilized in order to legitimize existing policies. More widely, for elected representative and municipal technicians, joining a municipal association and participating in its events makes it possible to acquire information or knowledge that can be used on the domestic scene. And, for a Mayor or elected representatives it is also a way to build an international status that can lead to national government responsibility. Finally, in the context of the last few decades, joining an intermunicipal network has been a way to take part in the international competition between towns to attract investment and/or tourism: the participation in inter-municipal activities is seen as one of the things a creative and innovating city should do, and it gives access to a whole
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sphere of events, awards and connections with an international visibility. This has been one major incentive behind the growth of city networks in recent years. Research is underway on the intermunicipal practices in Asian, South American or African cities relating these particular incentives and in the context of their specific urban conditions at the beginning of the 21st century, but that chapter will be part of the next centenary.
Reading suggestions Ewen Shane and Saunier Pierre Yves, (eds), The other global city. Explorations into the transnational municipal moment 1850-2000, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 McCann Eugene and Ward Kevin (eds), Mobile Urbanism: Cities and Policymaking in the Global Age, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011 Payre Renaud and Saunier Pierre Yves-, ‘L’internazionale municipalista : L’Union Internationale des Villes fra 1913 e 1940’, Amministrare, gennaio-agosto 2000. In Renaud Payre, ed., Lyon ville internationale. La métropole lyonnaise à l’assaut de la scène internationale 19142013, Lyon : Libel, 2013. Saunier Pierre-Yves (ed), ‘Municipal connections in the 20th century’, Contemporary European History, Vol.11, No.2, novembre 2002.
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